Khái lược văn minh luận - Fukuzawa Yukichi (giới thiệu)

Nguyen ban tieng Anh

  Yukichi Fukuzawa's ideas on family and the history ofcivilizationProfessor Toshiko Nakamura, Hokkai-Gakuen University, Japan1. Historical backgroundYukichi Fukuzawa(1835-1901) is one of the greatest men of Japan. He is usually thought tohave committed himself to westernize Japan in almost every social field, which included thesubject of women and family. But his argument about women and family is very rich andrelated to his ideas about man and society in civilization. In this article, I would like to showhis theory on the history of civilization and how he thought about man and society, whichrelates to his ideas on family and women.Fukuzawa was born in 1835, when the Tokugawa government ruled Japan. TheTokugawa era lasted from 1603 to 1868. Its regime was based on the feudal system. Japanwas divided into many local districts governed by samurai lords. At the top, there was theShogun who was the top samurai lord. Social relations were based on hierarchy. Samuraiwas the top, then peasant, artisan and merchant. The Tokugawa government adoptedConfucianism as the official ideology because it was thought to be the idea which justifiedthe social hierarchy.Fukuzawa's family belonged to the lower samurai class. His father was dead when hewas three. The children of a samurai family usually started learning Chinese classics(including Confucian text books) from around seven, but he could not do so until fourteen.However, he especially liked books on history and mastered them very well. So we will seethe influence of the Confucian classics in the later stage of his life.The Tokugawa government took the policy of national seclusion from the mid 17thcentury for more than 200 years. But in 1853, Commodore Perry with his U.S. squadroncame to Japan and demanded the country be opened. The Japanese Tokugawagovernment descended into confusion, and social hierarchy was shaken. Many men of thesamurai class started to think about changing Japan. Fukuzawa was one of them. Somepeople thought it would be better to go back to the ancient way, and others thought it wouldbe good to modernize Japan like the western countries. Fukuzawa hated the hierarchicalsocial system and Confucianism as Tokugawa ideology. So he started to learn Dutch,because at that time Netherlands was the only western country allowed to trade withJapan, while English became widespread after Japan opened the country. He went toU.S.A. twice and Europe once as a member of the mission of Tokugawa government, andbrought back many western books which he was going to translate into Japanese.Japanese political turmoil ended with regime change in 1868. The Shogun (the highestsamurai lord) returned his power to the emperor, which was called the Meiji restoration. SoFukuzawa lived his life in two different societies. The first half in feudal, and the secondhalf modern. After Meiji restoration he tried to make Japan a liberal and democraticcountry. Most leaders of the samurai class became ministers of Meiji government, butFukuzawa remained to be independent and tried hard to modernize Japan. He founded auniversity, set up a publisher, a newspaper, and helped to set up an insurance company, hetaught about the commercial and political activities of the west and tried to practice them.So he had a great influence in every social field in Japan. Also, he wrote a lot aboutwomen's rights and family relations which was (and still is) exceptional as a leading man.As his ideas on family and women is very much related to his argument on the history ofcivilization, I have to start from his ideas on civilization.2. Fukuzawa's ideas on civilizationThe history of civilizationThough Fukuzawa wrote a lot of articles during his life time, most important among themis 'An Outline of a Theory of Civilization'. In 1874 he decided to stop translating westernbooks and concentrated on studying the theory of civilization. He read the books of westernscholars such as Guizot, Buckle and J. S. Mill and wrote some plans and drafts. Hediscussed them with friends and students before publishing the work in 1875. So we cansee that he tried very hard to write this book.In 'An Outline', he wrote about the history of civilization which human societies would gothrough as they developed. He divided the history into three stages, which were 'savage ','half civilized', and 'civilized'. Every society must go along the path until they reach the finalstage of civilization. Surely he adopted this idea from western books he had read.Then what does Fukuzawa think are the elements which make the development ofcivilization possible? He thinks there must be two elements. One is the advancement of'intellectual ability (chi)' and 'virtue (toku)' of man which enables him to get material comfortin life and have dignity as a human. Another is the improvement of 'human social relations(jinnkan-kousai)'. Together they make our society develop towards the final stage ofcivilization. Then how is it possible? His explanation is as follows.In the savage stage, people have no 'intellectual abilities' to understand the rules ofnature. So they don't know how to deal with nature or control it. If they experience a naturalcalamity or good fortune, they tend to think that some evil or good Kami (god) which isbeyond their control is the cause. The same can be said about their social relations. In thisstage of civilization, there must be oppressive rules in society. But people never understandthe reason or background of the oppressive rules. They only fear the oppressions thinkingtheye are just like natural calamities. They have no 'intellectual abilities' to understand themand oppose them. Everything is decided by the ruler's orders. So is their moral code.People are forced to obey the ideological moral code ordered by the ruler.The process of civilization begins when 'the intellectual ability' of man develops first.Then man starts to doubt everything around him. He wants to know the reason or thecause of natural calamities and tries to avoid them by doing something. So he can controlnature by his 'intellectual ability'. What comes next?He also starts to doubt and think about the situation of his own being too. He doubts theConfucian ideological teachings and the stories of loyal Samurai which tell him how tobehave. He starts thinking by his own reason what kind of person he should be. So he 'getshis freedom of spirit, why not his freedom of body'. In other words he gets control of himselfand becomes independent. He decides what kind of person he wants to be and what andhow to manage to do on his own. His moral code is decided by himself from within, not bythe ruler's orders from outside himself. Fukuzawa thought if man got autonomy and hadhis own moral code by himself, man could be called 'virtuous'. Fukuzawa named such akind of moral code 'private virtue', because it related only to man's own being. He thought itimportant, because if man was independent, he must not rely on anything but himselfespecially in relation to what kind of person he was to be.Once man becomes independent and gains autonomy, then he starts to think about hissocial relations. Now he is able to use his 'intellectual ability' and knows what kind ofperson he wants to be. Then he thinks and decides by his own reason what and how todeal with other people. He knows what is wrong and what is right to do to other people. Sohe must be virtuous in social relations. Fukuzawa called this kind of moral code 'publicvirtue '. If man becomes virtuous and behaves accordingly, the human relation around himwould be improved. This is the second element of the development of civilization.The more man gets his 'intellectual ability' and becomes able to decide his moral codenot by ideology from outside but from within himself, the more he will be able to behave'virtuously' towards other people. This process improves the social relations around him.Fukuzawa imagined that the social relations of man could be drawn as concentriccircles. The first circle of social relation is family and it should be improved first. Then nextwould be the relations in the nation. People go through this process one by one andcivilization develops until it reaches the highest stage of civilization where everyone isintellectual as Newton and virtuous as Confucius. The whole world is in peace and like onefamily. So there will be no robbery or dispute, and people need not lock their doors or makecontractual documents for proof. Fukuzawa called it 'the peaceful world of civilization(bunmei-no-taihei)'. But he knew it would be realized many thousands years away in thefuture.The Confucian framework of civilization and societyAs I already mentioned, Fukuzawa read a lot of western books and learned the theory ofthe history of civilization from them. We can see their influence on his argument about thehistorical process of civilization. We also know he tried hard to modernize Japan. So wetend to think that Fukuzawa tried to imitate western civilization abandoning the old ideas.But, if we read his argument carefully, we can see that he did not only absorb the ideas ofwestern scholars but he tried to do so having his own framework of thinking about man andsociety. He learned Chinese classics when he was young and liked especially classics onhistory. He read them many times and mastered them very well. Though he attackedConfucian ideology in the Tokugawa feudal system in his articles, it was just the ideologicalfunction of Confucianism. His basic frame of thinking was Confucian. He understood thewestern theory of the history of civilization through the Confucian framework and thoughtthey were compatible and fit together well.It is well recognized when we see Fukuzawa's ideas of man. We saw that Fukuzawainsisted that man had to have a spirit of independence and autonomy to developcivilization. It meant man developed his 'intellectual ability' and 'virtue' and becameindependent. We may find similar ideas on man and society in western books. However, healways referred the man as a 'Head of ten thousand things (banbutsu-no-rei)' which wasthe basic Confucian idea of man. In Neo Confucian philosophy, man has a 'true nature'which must come out as he trains himself to be a virtuous man. Fukuzawa also thoughtman had a 'true heart (honshin)' as his core, and it could emerge only by working hard todevelop his 'intellectual ability' and 'virtue'. (This is the background idea of his famouspopular book, 'An Encouragement of Learning'). Fukuzawa's aim is not becoming good andvirtuous as in the Confucian ideal but becoming a man of 'independence and self respect(dokuritsu-jison)'. This idea seems to coincide with the western idea of independent man.But we can find out a similar phrase already in the books of Confucian scholars in theTokugawa period. So perhaps it was not Fukuzawa's original idea but there were suchideas among Confucian scholars in Tokugawa period. Fukuzawa expected people of thesamurai class to become such a kind of men who would lead the process of civilization inJapan and he believed they could be so.Fukuzawa also wrote that if a man became 'intellectual' and 'virtuous', i.e. the 'Head often thousand things', then the social relations around him would be improved. He thoughtthis improvement proceeded from the inner to the outer concentric circles around man. Sofrom family to nation and finally to the whole world. He wrote many times that only 'afterman became independent, then his household would become independent, after that hisnation would become independent and the whole world would be independent'. His famousphrase came from a Neo Confucian text book.The theme of Confucian philosophy is how to become a virtuous man and govern thecountry by virtue. The way to do it through Neo-Confucian philosophy is as follows. First aman must know the reason (ri) of the world (ten) (kakubusu-chichi). Then he tries to followreason from his heart and behave accordingly (seii-seishin). By doing so, he will governhimself and become a virtuous man (shushin). This process which made man virtuous wasthought to be very important in Neo Confucian philosophy. Then he can administer hishousehold (seika), and then govern his country (chikoku) and finally make peace in thewhole world (heitenka).We can understand Fukuzawa's explanation about the process of civilization well if weuse this framework. In Neo Confucian ideas, the reason of the world which man must knowmeant the Chinese classical idea of the rule of the world based on yin-yan theory. ButFukuzawa changed this meaning to the rules of nature based on modern science. His ideaof 'intellect' meant the ability to think in a rational way and he insisted that man must be'intellectual' to understand and conquer nature. Then in the Confucian precept, man musttry to behave himself in order to follow the reason of the world based on yin-yan theory.Fukuzawa changed this to mean that man must behave himself by following his reason andbecome 'virtuous'. Then he will be independent and govern himself (isshin-dokuritsu). Afterthat, his social relation will improve and his household and his nation will be independentaccordingly (ikka-dokuritsu, ikkoku-dokuritsu). So his idea of the history of civilization hadthe same structure with Neo Confucian ideas of man and the world. Perhaps Fukuzawaread and understood the western books about the history of civilization through this NeoConfucian framework of thinking in order to see the world and modernize it to include theknowledge of modern natural science.Fukuzawa argued that as the history of civilization developed, it would reach the higheststage of civilization i.e. 'peaceful world of civilization'. The idea that history had a goal toreach was surely from the western books. But when we read his explanation about 'thepeaceful world', we can see it very much looks like the descriptions of 'the world ofeveryone's peace (daido-no-yo)' in a Chinese classic book (raiki). In Confucian philosophythe ideal world was at the beginning of the history. But Fukuzawa put it at the end of historyfollowed to the western ideas, maintaining the same description of the ideal world.3. Family relation in the history of civilizationMan-woman relationIn the explanation of Fukuzawa's ideas on the history of civilization, I showed that hementioned all the social relations including family relation as public and used the word'private' only for himself (see his argument about 'private virtue and public virtue'). Also hisargument about social relations started from family relations. Again, he described the ideal'peaceful world of civilization' as a 'family'. So 'family' is a basic and important socialrelation in his idea of society. This is the characteristic of Fukuzawa's ideas of society whichis very much different from the western social theory.In Fukazawa's ideas of society, family was the first sphere to be affected by theimprovement of social relations in the history of civilization. He thought the relationshipbetween man and woman was most basic and important because all the virtuous relationsbetween people began here. He explained the man-woman relation would also changeaccording to the development of civilization i.e. the development of 'intellectual ability' and'virtue' of man. At the 'savage stage' where man (and of course woman) had no 'intellectualability' or 'virtue', men and women wanted to have relationships with each other fromnatural instinct. Fukuzawa argued the feeling of 'love' at that stage was instinctive sexualpassion just like animals. They felt love because their physical forms were different. Sotheir relation would be mainly a physical one. He named it as 'physically communicatedrelation (niku-kou)'.As history advances, man acquires his 'intellectual ability' and 'virtue', and becomesindependent. Fukuzawa thought that the most important feature of this developmentrelating to social relations was the ability to use language based on reason. So thedevelopment of 'intellectual ability' is the key to change the situation. Man and woman try tocommunicate with each other by language, not by direct physical action. Using language,they can get to know and understand each other's feelings very well. So, Fukuzawa calledthis type of relation a 'relation communicated by feeling (jou-kou)'. Then they love eachother from their hearts. To know other's feeling is important because it means one canunderstand other's inside. As I mentioned in relation to the independence of man,Fukuzawa thought man's relationship with others must be from the inside, not forced fromthe outside. So the ideal relationship between people had to be from heart to heart.Once people become able to understand each other, then a man must start to think abouta woman as a 'Head of ten thousand things' like himself (or vice versa). He understandsshe is as independent as he．Then the way to show his 'love' is to 'respect' her and begentle and kind to her (the same is said about woman). So their behavior becomes veryvirtuous and they have mutual 'love and respect (kei-ai)' after all. 'Respect (kei)' is the verybasic and important idea to become virtuous in Confucian philosophy. So we can see theinfluence of Confucianism here too in the relationship between man and woman. Fukuzawathought even though man and woman understood and loved each other deeply, they wereseparate entities. Their relation was not like 'the better half' in the west. They could not acttotally in the same way. So he emphasized the importance of 'jo' between man and womanwhich meant 'Do not do to others what you don't want to be done to you'. It looks just thesame as western liberal thought. But he said he could find such an idea in old Confucianthought, and it was not necessary to introduce a new idea from the west.Fukuzawa thought a woman was the same 'Head of ten thousand things' as man as faras she was 'intellectual' and 'virtuous'. The only difference between them was that theyhave different sexual organs. Other than that, they were completely the same, and theremust be no difference or no different evaluation in their social activities. So almost ahundred years before modern feminism introduced the idea of 'gender' against 'sex' in1970's, Fukuzawa had argued about the same kind of differentiation based on theConfucian idea of the 'Head of ten thousand things'. He even mentioned the possibility of'free love' in 'the peaceful world of civilization'. (This idea may have come from 'the ModernTimes movement' in America in the second half of the nineteenth century.) If man andwoman develop their abilities as he thinks along with the civilization, their relation in 'thepeaceful world' will depend totally on their free will and from the hearts. Then they set uptheir relations solely dependent on their 'love'. They are free to tie or dissolve theirrelations. But after mentioning these ideas, Fukuzawa reminded the readers that it was notyet the time to do that. The monogamous and lasting relation was the best choice at thattime of civilization, he said.Parent-child relationNext comes parent–child relations. This relation is different from the man-womanrelation, because a child can never be equal to parent as a 'Head of ten thousand things'as his 'intellectual ability' is always underdeveloped in any stage of the history. Still therelation changes as history progresses. At the first savage stage, the parent loves his childas animals love their offspring. It is as it were animal love. But since parent is to be a 'Headof ten thousand things', his attitude must change as civilization develops. He starts to thinkabout the child's welfare as he becomes intellectual himself and tries to help and guide hischild and show the child the way to be a ' Head' (which means parent is 'virtuous' to hischild). The child is always underdeveloped, so there must always be the imbalance ofpower between the parent and child. But if there is the imbalance of power between twopeople, the one who has power must try to fill the gap by using his power to help thedisadvantaged one, not to oppress him.This idea is just opposite to 'the preponderance of power (kenryoku-no-henchou)' ofConfucian ideology in the Tokugawa regime which allowed people in power to use it tooppress the disadvantaged. Fukuzawa hated any kind of oppression. This is the reasonwhy he attacked the Confucian ideology of the Tokugawa regime very fiercely. TheConfucian ideology demanded there must be 'the preponderance of power' in every socialrelation (lord-vassal, man-woman, and parent-child etc.) and the lower person shouldalways serve the upper person. Fukuzawa strongly opposed this idea and wanted people inpower to become virtuous and use it to help the disadvantaged. (He categorizeddisadvantaged persons as 'the elderly, the infant, the small and the weak ').The most important role of parent was to educate child to be a 'Head'. For Fukuzawa theeducational role of adults was a kind of social duty for human beings. He alwaysemphasized the influence of the parents' behavior and insisted that parents must behavevirtuously to show the good examples to children. These were the ideal family relationsbased on the development of civilization. He thought such kind of family relations existed atthat time in Japan in some samurai class families. He took it as a model of the idealrelations in the state of civilization in his argument.4. The meaning of 'An Outline of a Theory of Civilization'Though Fukuzawa wrote about 'An Outline of a Theory of Civilization' ratheroptimistically as mentioned above, he clearly knew that the situation surrounding Japanwas not so hopeful. At the beginning of the last chapter of 'An Outline', he wrote 'if youcompare the civilization of the west and Japan, you must say that Japan is far behind thewest. If there is a gap between them, naturally the forerunner will conquer the latecomer.So we must be vigilant and try to keep the independence of our nation.'His analysis of the situation is as follows. The people of Japan are in a rather easymood because they succeeded in the Meiji restoration and the following political changeswent well. But, he warns, it is not the time to rest after finishing the political changessuccessfully. Japan has another problem. It is the relation with foreign countries. Theydeprive Japanese of their wealth by trade. Also they behave oppressively even though theypermit equal rights for Japanese. Look at India. Look at China. So, the most importantmatter for Japan in the current situation is to keep independence. Independence means notmerely the territory of the nation exists but people themselves protect their nation and keeptheir rights and dignity. So he declared to stand up to keep the independence of Japan.Even though he imagined 'the peaceful world of civilization', it was not the time to realize it.When every other nation competes to have the share of the world, Japan must alsobecome eligible to compete with them or defend itself at least. He knew well that suchnationalism was a bit narrow and biased from the view point of 'the peaceful world' but itwas the reality at that time. So in the last part of 'An Outline' he wrote, 'Now, our goal is tokeep the independence of our nation, and the civilization we aim now is the means to keepit.' In the last chapter he drew readers' attention many times to the fact that he was talkingabout the 'current situation' and commented that he used the word 'current' or 'now 'especially to think about problems of Japan at that time. So he warned people that theymust not mix it up with the general theory of civilization.So, in 'An Outline' Fukuzawa wrote about the general theory of civilization which was anideal way to the goal, and in the last chapter the realistic analysis about the situation ofJapan. He was not the kind of man who thought only the ideal theory or real politik. Healways assessed the real situation along with the theory of ideal world. He explained hisaim to write the book in the first two chapters of 'An Outline'. He emphasized theimportance of deciding the aim of an argument and said his aim to write the book was tocatch up with western civilization. So he mentioned about the general theory first, and thendecided it was necessary to aim at the western civilization to keep the independence ofJapan at that time.By having these dual ways of the reality and the theory in mind, he could show twoimportant points to Japanese people. One is that the gap between Japanese and westerncivilization did exist. However, another point is, Japan could catch up, because the gap wasnever very great on the long course of the history of civilization. If he did not think of thehistory of civilization which had the ideal world far beyond the western stage, it would havebeen difficult to believe that Japan could catch up with the west. The long history ofcivilization put the western civilization in a relative position, (it was not the civilization), andmade people think the gap between Japan and the west was relatively small in the processof a long history. So this argument could have given a warning to Japanese people in oneway, and encouraged them to catch up with the western civilization in another. Then whatshould Japanese people do to catch up with the west?Fukuzawa thought that to copy the outer form of civilization was pretty easy. But heunderstood that the essence of western civilization was the independent spirit of peoplewhich he thought western people had, but was very difficult to create in Japan. However,there was some way to do it. It would be difficult if you think of creating it from nothing, butwhat if you use some things that already exist in Japan and change them? Fukuzawathought it was possible. So in the end of 'An Outline', he wrote, 'moral ties of feudal systemof the Tokugawa could be used as "the expedient means" of civilization to make manvirtuous, if you understand the purpose of national independence correctly.' So he wasdetermined to keep the independence of Japan and very flexible. He tried to use everythingpossible as 'expedient means' for the purpose. As I mentioned already, he expected thesamurai class to become independent men and the samurai family was a kind of model ofthe family in civilization. He regarded people of samurai class as the candidates forleadership in the process of civilization in Japan, just like the middle class in England.5. The different principles in family and nationIn his analysis of the history of civilization, Fukuzawa showed us that human relationimproved from the nearest relationship. It means that from family relation to nation, and inthe whole world. Man is the center of the concentric circles of human relations and hissocial relation begins in the family sphere which is the nearest circle to man. Even thoughwe set boundaries to divide each circle, they are not fixed. The boundaries will be blurredand fade away as the history of civilization progresses, because the social relations aroundman will improve from near to far over the boundaries of family and nation which we set todivide them now. He thought that Japanese civilization at that time had already developedas far as people had ideal relations in the family circle. So it was time to concentrate on theindependence of the nation. It means that in the 'current' situation of civilization we have tohave such boundaries of spheres as family and nation around us.Fukuzawa thought there were different kinds of social relations based on differentprinciples in different circles in society at that time. He explained that family relations werebased on 'the sentimental bond (jou)' and 'virtue'. But relations in western society werebased on rules, contracts, laws and international treaties 'now'. 'All of them are the meansonly to prevent bad behavior. There is no spirit of virtue.' He was critical of such society butit was necessary to follow them to catch up. So he set off to lead Japan to catch up withwestern countries by modernizing Japanese society. Usually the family is not included inthe 'social relation' in the west, but Fukuzawa included it and chose to keep it as it wasbased on different principle from the western social relations.We know from historical studies that real family relations in the Tokugawa period wasnot so oppressive as had been thought judging by texts of Confucian teaching. We can seea lot of examples of intimate and caring relations inside families if we read diaries, lettersand chronicles of that time. Women were independent and they went anywhere on theirown. (Such a situation was very different from China, as many Chinese travelers noticed intheir chronicles just after the Meiji restoration.) Man and woman had different roles, butthey respected each other's role and helped each other. Wives had a strong power formanagement of the household and they could leave husbands when they wanted divorce.Fathers looked after their children more than today. (Of course, it was a part of the trainingof succession of their jobs.) Some fathers even took children to their working places whentheir mothers were ill. So perhaps Fukuzawa wrote his articles bearing such family relationsin his mind. He thought it would be all right to leave family relations as they were andfocused on the changes of social fields.6. The problems of man-woman relation in the context of modernizationAs we saw already, Fukuzawa thought the independence of the nation was mostimportant at that time in Japan. So he devoted himself to modernizing Japan as a nation.As far as families were concerned, he thought it would be all right to leave them as theywere. This was his analysis when he wrote 'An Outline' in 1875. But the real situation didnot go as he had expected. In the 1880s the Meiji government turned its policy to be veryconservative and tried to reintroduce the Confucian ideas as the basic ideology of theirpolicy. So Fukuzawa was inevitably forced to fight against it, and wrote a few articles tooppose strongly the revival of Confucian ideology. It was rather a tricky and difficult task forhim, because his strategy for civilization was to use every possible element of Tokugawaperiod as the expedient means to civilization. It might easily be mixed up with theconservative ideology of Confucianism. So he had to attack the Confucian ideology all themore fiercely. When we read his articles during this period we have to be very careful andthink about these political situations.This is also said about Fukuzawa's articles on family and women. He wrote them mainlyfrom 1885 to 1888, when the revision of treaties with western countries which forced Japanin an unequal position was on the political table, and in 1899 just after the promulgation ofthe civil code of Japan. Those articles were written mainly to argue about the 'current'problems concerning man-woman relation in the context of modernization, with a fierceattack on Confucian ideology. Then what was the problem about men at that time?It was the immoral behavior of men. Fukuzawa argued that men started to behaveimmorally after the Meiji restoration. They were 'like horses freed without bits in the springfield'. In Tokugawa period the situation was different. Even though men were permitted tohave concubines, it was under strict rules. But Fukuzawa said it had all changed.'Nowadays men behave immorally without any restrictions. Men refuse to listen to theirparents' opinion about marriage and even abandon their wives to marry with another'.Especially the leaders' behavior was awful. They bought prostitutes without hesitation.Some even married them. This was not the way of behavior of civilized people. He evensaid the Confucian moral code forced by Tokugawa government had been good to keep themoral behavior of men.Fukuzawa worried about the situation just because it might affect the revision of treaties.The western marriage system was monogamy. So what did western people think of Japanif they knew the situation? They would not recognize Japan as a civilized nation, whichmeant the revision of treaties would not be successful. Fukuzawa expected men to behavemorally, or at least to hide immoral behavior behind the scenes. He knew well even inwestern countries people did not always behave morally, but they tried to conceal thoseacts. So he advised Japanese men to do the same as western people. It might not be anideal way but a necessary 'expedient way' to be a member of modern civilized nations.Fukuzawa thought women were virtuous enough even by the standard of westerncivilization. Their problems would be some lack of social and political rights andresponsibilities compared with western women. He advocated that women must be equallyeducated as men from the start, and they must have their own properties. He thoughtwomen would be able to carry their responsibilities by having those rights and exercisingthem. Fukuzawa mentioned that western women take the jobs in various fields, but it was abit early to talk about it, he said. Japanese women had to change gradually with the changeof their circumstances. So his articles were written to bring the social status of Japanesewomen up to the same level as western women. He expected Japanese women to take therole of management of their household as before in the mean time of modernization.In 1894 Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese war. Fukuzawa was very delightedand perhaps relieved by the victory. It was a victory of Japanese civilization, because Chinaonce had been a great civilization but then half colonized by western countries.Fukuzawa wrote his last major works on family and women in 1899. Japan succeededin revision of the unequal treaties with the western countries by then and promulgated theCivil Code previous year. For Fukuzawa the promulgation of the Civil Code was 'a verygreat change', and 'the revolution of people's mind'. The newspaper he edited printed thearticles of the Civil Code, and explained them to the readers. He might have thought thatthe equality between man and women has its solid ground in the Civil Code. Fukuzawaaccepted it as the development of civilization. The time had come to be based on theconcrete law, not the moral code by the ruler, to set up the relations between people as inwestern countries. That was his understanding. He was pleased that Japan had reachedthe same stage of civilization as western nations, which were based on rules, at the verylast period of his life.7. ConclusionWhen we look back at our history, we know there have been many great changes in oursociety. The Meiji restoration is one of them. But people's life always continues despitethose big changes of social structure. It would be impossible to change all the aspects oflife, abandoning everything old. Fukuzawa knew this well or thought it was impossible andnot necessary to do so. He applied a similar kind of attitude when he studied western socialtheories. He understood the western theory of history of civilization through the oldConfucian frame of thinking. He had the ideal way of civilization in mind and alwaysassessed the reality of Japan in the context of the ideal civilization. He tried hard to find theway to apply the essence of western civilization, keeping the existing Japanese way of life.Fukuzawa went back and forth between these dual ways, and so he could be very realisticwhen necessary.Even though western civilization was not the ideal way, Fukuzawa tried hard to catch upwith the western civilization once he decided to keep Japanese independence. InFukuzawa's thinking, Japanese family relations had to be kept being. But outside the familycircle, i.e. in economic and political fields, Japan had to become as capitalistic and liberalas the west. Japanese people tried to imitate those social systems since Meiji withoutchanging much of these close human relations. So we have always this double layer socialstructure. The outer structure of society is western, but the inner Japanese. We can seethis double layers structure, in various combinations, in every aspect of social life in Japan.Perhaps this is what makes foreigners rather confusing when they try to understandJapanese people and society. But this was the way how Japan accepted westerninfluences from outside.Fukuzawa's ideas are as it were the mixture of three civilizations. Japanese, Chineseand western. They contain many suggestions which we who live in the westernized modernworld have forgotten and can rediscover again. As far as the ideas on family is concerned, Ican point out two important arguments. Firstly, we have alternative man-woman relation tothe west. Fukuzawa showed us co-operative relation in which man and woman respectedeach other as independent individuals i.e.as the 'Head of thousand things' and was unitedby 'love and respect'. As Fukuzawa thought the family relation was the first social relation,people had to be independent and set up relations between individuals even in the family. Itwas different from the the western idea of the 'better half' in which man and womanbecome one by 'romantic love'. The second important point is that his argument includesthe relation with the disadvantaged. If we presuppose only an individual who is rational andindependent, it would be difficult to think of society including the people who are not rationalor independent. He thought the relation with the disadvantaged was different from therelation between independent individuals. This is also very suggestive for us to reconstructthe society including every kind of people who have some disadvantages.Lastly and especially, we can see his struggle as an example of how to import the fruitsof other civilization and apply them to the existing civilization. We are now living in the worldof so called 'clash of civilizations'. So I think it is all the more important to know that therewas a way to accept and implant the fruits of other civilizations and how it was done inJapan.BibliographyYukichi Fukuzawa, An Outline of a Theory of Civilization, tr. David A. Dilworth and G.Cameron Hurst, Tokyo, 1973Yukichi Fukuzawa, Fukuzawa Yukichi on Japanese Women, ed. Eiichi Kiyooka, Tokyo,1988Carmen Blacker, The Japanese Enlightenment, C.U.P., 1964